Beginning SEO Writing

Image courtesy of: John Althouse Cohen

SEO writing is not a mysterious, complicated process. So don’t freak out if you’re new to the concept. SEO writing uses common sense and a practical approach, and that aspect of it appeals to me.

Before I can share some SEO writing tips, it’s important you understand one of the ways I do business. I know many/most of you do not do things this way. However, this is one way I have found and so far, it’s very effective.

One of my approaches to internet marketing involves complete immersion into my niche market. This means that I become a member of that niche. For example, let’s say I have done some research and discovered there is a great opportunity around “digital scrapbooking”. I have found a fantastic affiliate program for some “digital scrapbooking software” and I want to promote it.  This is what I do: I create a personal blog related to “digital scrapbooking” which I update regularly. I also subscribe to other blogs related to digital scrapbooking, and spend some time getting to know other people who are also interested in it. I provide quality content related to digital scrapbooking, and participate in that market.

When you are writing blog posts or articles in your niche market, there are a few key things to remember:

1)      Keep the Reader in Mind – Who are you writing for? What are they interested in? Will they gain anything by reading your blog post or article? Provide value and interesting, informative content and you’ll find people will keep coming back for more.

2)      Keyword Research – Research your market and find out what they need. Are there questions that go unanswered? Is there a hot topic buzzing around the forums? Research long tail keywords and write your blog posts to address those keyword topics.

3)      Tools & Plugins – There are several awesome SEO tools and plugins available to help bloggers and internet marketers. My favourite right now is the All In One SEO plugin. Be sure to use “tags” and keywords in your blog posts. You can also create a category on your blog for your keyword to help you rank highly for that phrase.

4)      Social Bookmarking – Although this is not a long term SEO strategy, bookmarking your blog posts on Digg, Propeller, StumbleUpon, etc can help you gain quick search engine listings. Experts debate the value of social bookmarking on every SEO forum, however, I still use these services to gain visibility quickly.

One of the drawbacks to my method of “complete immersion” into my market is the sheer volume of work required to keep niche blogs updated with high quality SEO content.  If you are unable to keep up with the volume needed to maintain high visibility on the Web, consider hiring the service of a professional writer skilled in SEO practices to enhance the relevancy of your site. You’ll find the work will pay off as you gain the trust of new customers.

At first outsourcing may seem daunting (it sure was for me). But I see now that everyone can do this. The job I posted was a very small job – only $20. If you can spare $20 to have someone write a few quality blog posts or articles for you, it will free up some of your time to focus on other things.

But that is a topic for another day! Time for me to get back to work! Enjoy your day!